About the Center

Founder and Executive Director,
Valentina Rodríguez Guerra

Valentina Rodríguez Guerra is the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for the Study of Oligarchs. She is an author, oligarch researcher, and investigator at Colombia’s Contraloría General de la Nación (Office of the Comptroller General of the Nation). Valentina is the
co-author, with David Lingelbach, of The Oligarchs’ Grip: Fusing Wealth and Power (De Gruyter, 2023). This book is the first global and historical study of oligarchs.

Valentina has delivered papers on the topic of oligarchs at international academic conferences and is preparing a manuscript entitled “How Oligarchs are Defeated” for submission to the Harvard Business Review. She and David Lingelbach are the co-editors of the book series
De Gruyter Studies in Oligarchs and Oligarchies. Valentina is a frequent contributor to the international media (The Messenger and The Hill) and has been interviewed by media outlets such as the Financial Times and Talk TV. Her work has received awards from NASA and Colombia’s Ministry of Education. Valentina is completing an MBA at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, from which she earned an undergraduate degree in business administration.

Founder and Executive Chair,
Dr. David C Lingelbach

David Lingelbach (B.S., M.S., MIT; Ph.D., Exeter) is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Merrick School of Business, The University of Baltimore, and the Founder and Executive Chair of The Center for the Study of Oligarchs. His research focuses on oligarch studies, entrepreneurship in emerging and developing economies, and entrepreneurial finance. David has been awarded Fulbrights to Myanmar/Burma and Colombia. He is a frequent contributor to the international media (The Hill and The Messenger) and has been interviewed by media outlets such as Bloomberg, Forbes, and the Financial Times. David’s latest book, The Oligarchs’ Grip: Fusing Wealth and Power, with Valentina Rodríguez Guerra from Universidad Nacional de
Colombia, is published by De Gruyter and was a finalist for a Goody Business Book Award.

Prior to becoming an academic, David served in various senior roles in international finance and development, including as CEO of Bank of America’s businesses in the former Soviet Union and President of one of post-communist Russia’s first venture capital funds.